TOMS RIVER, NJ – Last week, Toms River Mayor Maurice “Mo” Hill issued a press release stating the Toms River Jewish Community Council (VAAD), long-time allies who helped the mayor get elected in 2019, have instead endorsed his opponent.
Shore News Network fact-checked the press release and found it to be misleading. Hill still has extremely high favorability within the growing Jewish community in Toms River, but his opponent Geri Ambrosio, an ally of Ocean County GOP Chairman George Gilmore, is shedding bloc votes from Hill.
The release was written by Toms River Public Information Officer Art Gallagher, who also serves as Hill’s political campaign consultant.
There is some truth in Gallagher’s press release, but very little.
Ambrosio hosted the TRJCC at a recent fundraiser. Gilmore, who has strong ties to the Orthodox Jewish community, is allegedly backing Ambrosio, despite the party officially endorsing Hill. Gilmore denies any involvement with Ambrosio’s campaign but has been supporting her behind the scenes.
Talks were had between Jewish leaders in the community to endorse Ambrosio, but an official endorsement has not yet been announced.
Gilmore’s links to the Jewish community have helped Ambrosio appeal to a small portion of community voters upset with Hill.
Today, VAAD member Booky Kaluszyner denied Hill’s claim that he had endorsed Ambrosio but did not rule out a future endorsement for the embattled candidate who was charged two years ago in a hit-and-run crash in Lacey Township.
Kaluszyner said Hill’s press release was nothing more than an attempt to make the troubled mayor appeal to the anti-Jewish sentiment in Toms River.
“We never put out an endorsement for Geri,” said Booky Kaluszyner in an interview with the Asbury Park Press today. “Mo was asking for our endorsement, and we have not endorsed him either.”
Leaders in the Jewish community in Toms River told Shore News Network last week they have reached out to all three candidates in the election, Hill, Ambrosio and Councilman Daniel Rodrick. While both Hill and Ambrosio were open to discussions for an endorsement, leaders said Rodrick has not reached out to the VAAD seeking an endorsement.
The false endorsement was allegedly penned by Art Gallagher, the Toms River Township public information officer who is also running Hill’s political campaign. Galagher is no stranger to deception in political messaging.
In Manalapan, Gallagher was hired by developer Vito Cardinale for public relations messaging regarding his proposed Manalapan Crossings high-density apartment complex featuring hundreds of residential units and a retail plaza.
When residents of Manalapan spoke out against the project, Gallagher concocted a scheme to mislead residents into thinking Cardinale and land owner Joe Spano would pull the project and instead build a pig farm in the predominantly Jewish community. At the time, Gallagher operated the More Monmouth Musings blog and was paid to publish the fear-peddling article by Cardinale.
Cardinale build a pig pen and brought in a handful of pigs to scare the residents. The plan worked. Manalapan Crossings was eventually approved.
In 2019, during Mo Hill’s mayoral campaign, Gallagher spread a rumor about Shore News Network being paid by Democrats, even presenting a forged and fake check in the amount of $4,000 from Democrat candidate Jonathan Petro to Shore News Network, “proving” that Shore News Network was being paid by Democrats for covering the faulty campaign of Hill.
That check turned out to be completely fake.
In 2011, when Gallagher was running for political office, he was forced to suspend his own political campaign after being arrested on a theft warrant out of Delaware. Gallagher was accused by police of taking $100,000 in stolen property and third-degree forgery.
Now, Gallagher earns $90,000 per year working as a confidential employee of Mayor Hill in charge of communications for the township, while also running Mo Hill’s 2023 political campaign.